Two diets framed early humanity. In Eden, humans ate only plants; meat was forbidden. The Talmud teaches:
Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: Meat was not permitted to Adam, the first man, for consumption, as it is written: “Behold, I have given you every herb that brings forth seed… for you it shall be for food” (Genesis 1:29–30). Eating vegetation is permitted to people and animals, but eating the animals of the earth is not permitted to you.[i]
After the Flood—after Noah spends months in sleepless caretaking, feeding and protecting every species aboard the Ark—the permission changes:
But when the children of Noah came, God permitted them to eat meat; as it is stated: “Every moving thing that lives shall be for food for you; as the green herb I have given you all” (Genesis 9:3).[ii]
The sequence is the point. Dominion comes only after service. You may consume what you have learned to care for.
The Talmud teaches that after the Temple’s destruction, “a person’s table atones for him.”[iii] Our tables are micro-altars; eating is not domination but elevation. Chassidut explains that food contains sparks of holiness that rise when we eat l’shem Shamayim (“for the sake of Heavens”) to fuel mitzvot, learning, and kindness. Eat only for craving, and those energies sink. Eat with intention, and they ascend.[iv] The animal life we consume becomes fuel for human blood and soul.
We may eat only what we’re ready to elevate.
The neuroscience parallel: Caregiving reshapes neural reward circuits. Caring for others recruits the brain’s motivational systems, so that helping becomes rewarding. The Ark was humanity’s caregiving training campus—150 days of nonstop tending. Only after our reward systems were rewired toward stewardship was consumption morally safe, channeled toward a higher purpose rather than raw appetite.
Takeaway: Before each meal, pause. Ask: What am I about to elevate? Say a blessing with intention. Choose ethically. Share your table. Let the energy you consume become prayer, learning, generosity, and action. That is dominion—not over animals, but over ourselves.
Bon Appétit!
[i] Sanhedrin 59b.
[ii] Sanhedrin 59b.
[iii] Berakhot 55a, with a parallel at Menachot 97a, both deriving it from Ezekiel 41:22 (“This is the table that is before the Lord”).
[iv] Tanya, ch. 7.